In 2015 the AILA Executive Board initiated a new Research Network that would investigate the cultural diversity of research philosophies, epistemological groundings, modes of inquiry and institutional constraints that exist in the research done in applied linguistics among AILA affiliates. We called this network ReCAL, for Research Cultures in Applied Linguistics. Over the last seven years, ReCAL has explored the various ways applied linguistics is researched in various parts of the world, including Latin America. It has focused in particular on the following:1)The theoretical and conceptual culture of Applied Linguistics. How have theorists from the Global North and the Global South been interpreted and used in applied linguistic research in various countries and/or intellectual traditions? How are Anglo-American applied linguistic concepts like "agency", "identity", "culture", "colonization", "multilingualism" used across various research cultures and traditions, e.g., in Spanish, Portuguese, French? 2) The culture of publishing. The opportunities and constraints of publishing in English. How can we publish in English yet retain the cultural specificity of thought, knowledge and intellectual tradition of the original author? 3) The culture of language pedagogy. Compare the different epistemological and political foundations of various language pedagogies in different countries.
Since 2015, AILA has conducted various ReCAL symposia in Europe and the United States. Its work has consisted not only of documenting how applied linguistics is conceived of in various countries, but has involved explaining, translating, transposing notions, concepts, and discourses used in different parts of the world from one language of research into another. In 2017, Paula Szundy, then president of the Brazilian Association of Applied Linguistics invited ReCAL to give a symposium at the 18th AILA Congress in Rio de Janeiro. That symposium featured six contributions, from Brazil, Uruguay, Guatemala and Colombia respectively. At the AILA 2021 congress, ReCAL was invited again by the congress chairs Marjolijn Verspoor and Kees de Bot to offer a symposium on applied linguistics in Latin America. This symposium was co-organized by Harold Castaneda-Pena, Paola Andrea Gamboa Diaz and Claire Kramsch. It was titled: "The dynamics of language, communication and culture in applied linguistic research in Latin America". While the papers in this symposium captured only a fraction of the abundant applied linguistic research done in Latin America, they clearly addressed some of the major issues of concern to applied linguists around the world: issues of social and racial justice; the legacy of coloniality and post-colonial epistemologies; deconstruction and post-modern theories of language, identity, and culture; and the professional development of teachers both pre- and in-service development. Concerns were voiced again about the role that monolingual English (and the neoliberal ideology often associated with it) plays in secondary and post-secondary education, in applied linguistic research and the publication of this research.
Besides giving an historical account of the ReCAL research network, this paper will report on a forthcoming volume based on this last symposium: Castaneda-Pena, Gamboa & Kramsch (eds.) Decolonizing applied linguistic research in Latin America. Moving to a multilingual mindset.
